In the novel The Things They Carried, author Tim O'Brien demonstrates many ideas about war, survival, corruption and helplessness through his collection of short stories Throughout his book, O'Brien describes many incidents that happen simply by chance and luck. In these short stories, O'Brien teaches that it is impossible to generalize about. war. In a dark irony, war is horrible but is not always horrible because war corrupts soldiers, but at the same time makes soldiers feel alive. A central idea on which O'. Brien writes is that soldiers are helpless in their own survival in the face of war and that a soldier's fate depends on him or her luck and luck.Say No to Plagiarism Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games. should not be banned”?Get an original essayThis theme of survival based on luck is presented several times throughout the novel, in cases where a soldier is killed. survival depended solely on chance and luck. In one particular story, O'Brien writes of a soldier who was never injured: “Dobbins was invulnerable. Never hurt, never a scratch. In August, he tripped a Bouncing Betty [a land mine], which did not explode. A week later he found himself caught in the open during a fierce little firefight, with no cover, he just took a deep breath and let the magic do its work” (O'Brien 112). O'Brien writes about a soldier named Henry Dobbins who survived without any injuries due to chance alone. When Curt Lemon steps on the land mine, he dies, but when Dobbins steps on a land mine, it does not explode. None of these men did anything differently, and yet one lives and the other dies, revealing the book's predominant theme of chance. Another scene in which the theme of chance is clear occurs after Kiowa's death: "You could blame the war." We could blame the idiots who went to war. One could blame Kiowa for going there. We could blame the rain. You could blame the terrain, the mud, the climate... You could blame the arms manufacturers or Karl Marx for a twist of fate or an old man from Omaha who forgot to vote.” (O’Brien 169-170). After Kiowa's death, O'Brien describes everything that could be blamed for his death. The fact that so many things can be blamed for Kiowa's death demonstrates that many factors must have been present for Kiowa's death. If just a few of these factors had been changed, it is quite possible that Kiowa would have survived the war. Therefore, Kiowa's death was purely due to chance, as the presence of many of these factors relies on chance. Many of O'Brien's stories relate to the general theme of a soldier's helplessness in war. A soldier's life depends on chance and luck, so much so that soldiers have little or no say in their life or death. This idea is present in Jimmy Cross's thoughts after Kiowa's death: "In his mind, he [Jimmy Cross] was reviewing the letter to Kiowa's father. Impersonal this time. An officer expressing an officer's condolences. No excuses were needed, because [Kiowa's death] was one of those weird things, and the war was full of monsters, and nothing could ever change it anyway. (O’Brien 169). Kiowa's fate was purely a matter of chance. For Kiowa to be dead, certain things must have happened. First, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross must have made the mistake of obeying his superiors rather than his own instincts. Secondly, the place they would choose had to be the.